Sazerac, Sleuth & Slay by Mary Cunningham

It’s my stop today on the blog tour for Sazerac, Sleuth & Slay by Mary Cunningham. Many thanks to Lori from Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours for the invite.

Sazerac, Sleuth & Slay is the second book in Mary Cunningham’s Andi Anna Jones Mystery series.

Stewart Payne, Andi Anna Jones’ least favorite client, comes over for a hotel booking. His wife is going to a convention in New Orleans and wants to book her a hotel room via Graves Travel (owned by Andi.) Days later, she receives an angry phone call from Stewart saying he will sue her for ‘ten times more than her travel agency is worth.’ His wife was a no-show at the hotel booked by Andi’s agency.

Meanwhile, Andi’s ex-stepmother, Ruby, heard of a convention at New Orleans and has packed her bags. After hearing about Grace’s mysterious disappearance, Andi gets on a flight to New Orleans. She wants to know what happened.

A local fisherman goes fishing and ends up catching the ‘biggest catch’ of his life – a dead body. Rumor in town is that, a serial killer is on prowl. Was this dead woman his latest prey?

Having read the first book – Margaritas, Mayhem, and Murder, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing what’s next for Andi Anna Jones. The first book ended with Andi and the handsome Mexican sheriff Manny deciding to date each other. Well, that relationship might have started with a bang (ahem!) but fizzled out soon… or so Andi thinks because their phone calls have gone from daily to once a week to once a fortnight to… Hmm!

Lucy, another old client of Graves Travels books a three-week Alaskan cruise stay. When Andi learns that Grace has gone missing, she decides to go to New Orleans and find out what happened to the missing client. At the Big Easy, she sees someone – someone who was supposed to be trip elsewhere.

The mystery behind the missing client and the rumor of serial killer on prowl in Big Easy kept me guessing till the end. Andi’s employee Ellie’s cousins – Clem and Clementine – live in New Orleans. They lend Andi a helping hand – and are a fun couple to be with. Then there’s Ruby – the good ol’ ex-stepmother who’s nothing less than a drama queen.

As the story proceeds, we have a couple of shocking twists and developments. I never saw these coming and honestly, some of the twists were simply mind-blowing.

One thing I liked the most about this series is our main character Andi Anna Jones. She’s quirky, funny and full of life. Well, a bit like teenage girl when around Manny but young love and all that, you see. *wink*

Identity of the perp was no shocker – it’s an inverted mystery. But the clues that finally led Andi to the killer – brilliantly done. We also have a shocking twist at the end. I cannot say more about it and make this review a spoiler but I will say this: totally unexpected. I was like, wow! Someone was busy sleuthing! (Someone other than Andi.)

I missed reading about Manny – I wish he had a role in the story. I hope to see Manny and Andi solve a case together in the next installment. Fingers crossed.

Overall, Sazerac, Sleuth & Slay by Mary Cunningham is an engrossing, completely entertaining and quirky cozy mystery. This series has made it to my list of favorite cozy series so I am gonna go ahead and highly recommend this one.

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There’s a giveaway for this tour. Giveaway details are here.

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